


Hell Hath no Fury

by tablrcloth



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: 5 Things, 5 Times, Arson, BAMF Niki | Nihachu, Betrayal, Fire, Gen, Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Niki | Nihachu-centric, Realization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:22:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28695390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablrcloth/pseuds/tablrcloth
Summary: Niki finally gets her closure. Finally, L'manberg is gone.(or, five times Niki has a home under L'mantree, and one time she leaves it all behind.)
Relationships: Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Niki | Nihachu & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Niki | Nihachu & Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Niki | Nihachu & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Comments: 7
Kudos: 103





	Hell Hath no Fury

**Author's Note:**

> i'm writing specifically about the characters and not the creators. if any featured creators are uncomfortable, i will take this down immediately.
> 
> you know the song from hamilton that goes “I want to sit under my own vine and fig tree, a moment alone in the shade, at home in this nation we’ve made” um yeahh [cries]
> 
> enjoy the read!

“It’s peaceful here, you know.”   


Niki looks up from sewing another cross onto the flag, watching Eret carefully. It's a nice day in L'manberg; green grass swaying in the breeze, cumulus clouds dancing across the horizon, a few squirrels and other animals jumping around the base of the blackstone walls. They were both sitting underneath a tree by the wood path, right outside of L'manberg's center, hidden from the sun by the shade and simply enjoying the day. “Yeah?”

“I’m- I’m glad L’manberg exists," he adds quietly, looking down.   


Niki looks back down at the flag she's sewing, continuing to thread the needle into the fabric. “So you reconsidered?”   


“Yeah,” Eret says with a sigh. “Yeah, I- I wish I hadn’t... y’know.”   


“I understand.”   


She sees Eret bow his head from the top of her vision and she looks back up, resting a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. “You had a change of heart. It happens to everyone.”   


“I got them  _ killed.” _

“They knew the danger.”   


"Doesn't make it right,"  Eret mutters, looking away towards the towering blackstone walls and the flagpole he had set up for her earlier. “How’s the bakery going?” he asks, changing the subject. Niki takes the hint.   


“I’m hoping to have it open by next week,” she explains, knotting the thread and snipping it with her scissors, before threading the needle again. “I want a good menu, but everything else is pretty much done. The interior is looking nice.”   


“You’re running it with Fundy, right?”   


“Yeah,” she says, laughing. “He’s trying to help bake, but- well, let’s just say he’s got a long way to go.”   


Eret chuckles and rests a hand under his chin. “He can’t cook?”   


“I’m terrified of him in the kitchen, so I make him get my ingredients. The last time I made him bake with me, he almost broke the oven, and those are... expensive.”   


“I could help you bake,” Eret suggests. “I mean, you don’t have to- I just thought, maybe, cause I'm at least competent, I think-”   


“I’d like that, Eret,” Niki says, smiling gently at him, and he smiles back.

* * *

The next time Niki is under that tree, the walls are gone.

She’s clutching the front of her sweater, breathing heavily, and she wipes the sweat off her forehead, resting a hand on top of the bark of the tree. She should keep moving; Schlatt had just  _ imprisoned  _ her within iron bars, and for what? Challenging his rule? The only person on her side now was Eret, because Wilbur and Tommy were exiled, and Fundy-

Niki didn't want to think about Fundy. His expression when he helped tear down those blackstone walls that ensured their safety, a symbol of their freedom and independence...

She thought she could TRUST him!

When the election was first announced, she’d been excited; Wilbur could finally be recognized as a fair ruler, for instilling democracy instead of electing himself. But she had let Fundy convince her into running as well, and now she realizes it was just because Fundy didn’t think Wilbur took him seriously. She’d been used. Her ability, used just for Fundy to prove a _point._

Now, Niki knows she is alone.

Niki turns and keeps running, away from the tree, and away from L'manberg.

* * *

“Ten days,” Wilbur decides, shoving his hands in his pocket. Everyone is watching him. The breath catches in Niki’s throat as Wilbur continues talking. "Ten days for you to win, or L’manberg will be gone."

"Wil-" she starts, but Wilbur isn't looking at her. He just turns and walks away, back to Pogtopia, and Niki forces herself to breathe as she watches him leave.

“Okay,” Tommy says resolutely, and Niki looks back at him. “Ten days. Everyone, prepare.”   


"How is that fair?" Niki argues. "I know it's not your fault, but- can't we just talk to Wilbur?"  


"We've tried talking," Tommy huffs, crossing his arms. "He never listens to me. He didn't even listen to you."  


"What changed?" Niki murmurs, her gaze falling to the ground.

“What changed," Quackity echoes, and she looks up at him. Quackity walks over to the tree, tapping the bark, and everyone watches him carefully. "Hold on,” he says, and Niki realizes that’s  _ her  _ tree; it’s the one she'd sit under so many times to watch the sun dip behind L’manberg’s  walls, and she even returned to it during Manberg’s reign occasionally, as a reminder of what this place used to be. “This tree has been here ever since L’manberg’s creation, right?”   


“He’s right!” Tubbo gasps, and everyone walks over to it. Niki stays behind, simply looking at the tree, at the oak wood that curved into branches and its leafy green leaves. “It’s been here through everything.”   


“No matter what happens, everyone promises not to damage this tree,” Tommy declares, running a hand along the bark.   


“It’s L’mantree,” Niki realizes, and everyone turns to look at her, before Tommy breaks into a grin and laughs.   


“L’mantree!” Tommy says. “That’s good, Niki. Yeah. L'mantree.”   


“Wait,” Tubbo says, and he pulls a sign from his inventory, sticking it in the soft earth near the tree’s roots, quickly engraving L’mantree into the sign. “There. Now it’s official.”

A great big smile grows on Niki's face as she stares at the sign, and she whispers, "L'mantree."

* * *

The second time everyone is gathered around that tree, there’s smoke in the air. It clogs the sky, permeating the air, so much so that they had to escape the crater and wait it out on the outskirts of L’manberg.

Niki sits under the tree alone, watching Tommy and Tubbo approach from the left. She can see the old festival decorations wave in the distance, and distantly wonders why they were never taken down.  _ Guess there was no one able to,  _ she thinks. Everyone had left, and Schlatt had been completely alone. Now, he was dead. He had it coming.   


“What now?” Tommy asks, and she looks at him. He looks tired beyond belief, exhaustion seeping into every feature, and Niki feels a pang of pity as she stands up.   


“Rebuild,” she suggests, and Tubbo nods.   


“I say it should be something new,” Tubbo adds. “We make a city on stilts, over the crater. To show that we’ve forgiven but not forgotten, you know?”   


“I like that,” Tommy says, smiling slightly. “I just...  _ L’manberg _ . It’s...”   


Niki approaches him, holding out her arms in a hug, and Tommy accepts gratefully, sniffling into her shoulder. “It's not all gone, Tommy. L’manberg was never a place, not exactly-”   


“It was a people!” Tubbo says excitedly, and Niki smiles at him.   


“We’ve got each other. We’ll be just fine,” she says quietly, and Tommy pulls away, smiling at her and wiping at his eyes.   


“Thank you, Niki.”

“At least we’ve got L’mantree,” Tubbo says, and they all laugh. “As long as we’ve got this, we’re set!”   


Niki rests a hand on its bark and looks up into the leaves, smiling softly. “As long as we’ve got L’mantree.”

* * *

Niki stands under the branches of the tree once more, shaded from the beating sun as she looks on at the festival. Everyone is gathered playing games, but she had stepped away, wanting some time to think. The last time a festival happened, it hadn’t gone well. Tubbo died, Wilbur threatened explosions. What would make this time any different? She felt queasy thinking about the implications.

“Niki!” someone calls, and she looks to the right, chewing her lip. Tubbo is walking up to her, and the first thing she notices is his presidential suit, freshly starched.   


“Well, you look fancy,” she comments wryly, and Tubbo giggles, shuffling his feet.   


“Yeah, uh- big day! Y’know.” His voice is shaky and his expression is nervous. Niki tilts her head; it’s clear he’s got a question.   


“What is it?” she asks, and Tubbo sighs, knowing she saw straight through him.

“Well, I was wondering, you know how like- I- do you think something’s going to go wrong today?’   


“Yeah,” Niki says nonchalantly, turning to look back at the plaza.   


“You- you- uh. Okay. I was kind of hoping you wouldn't say that, but-”   


“Festivals are just begging for something bad to happen,” Niki interrupts, looking at him. “You have experience with that.”   


Tubbo snorts. “Don’t need to remind me. I was just thinking, ‘cause... Techno is against L’manberg, and he might do the same thing Wilbur did. Or, he might do what the bad version of Wilbur did.”   


“Don’t say that,” Niki snaps, and Tubbo recoils at her sudden change in tone. She doesn't care, just takes a step forward at him. “Don’t act like Wilbur was so pure and perfect before his exile, and don’t say he became his dark opposite in exile.  He was still the same man. He was never innocent, even as president. He's not two people, he just changed. There was no defining moment, because it was a long time coming.”   


Tubbo takes a step back, raising a hand. “Niki-”   


“Don’t pander to me, Tubbo. It was all our faults for not seeing it, and you know it. L’manberg was a failure long before it was bombed, and we were a dictatorship long before Schlatt took the name,” she spits, turning and walking away. She can feel Tubbo's eyes on her back, but she could care less, just walks up the wood staircase with no more care for her broken country.

* * *

Her final time under the tree, Niki doesn’t feel sad anymore. She doesn’t feel anything, she realizes with a smile. L’manberg means nothing to her anymore. It changed to something awful, beyond saving, and it deserved a death of blood and fire and smoke.

L’manberg was always destined to be a battlefield.

_It's a miserable situation,_ Niki thinks as she rests her hand on the bark of the tree, staring up into its branches. What had this tree stood for? A sense of timelessness, the way it had been here since the beginning and would remain until the end. Just like how everyone thought L’manberg would be. Something forever...

_ No,  _ she thinks angrily, and she fishes a lighter out of her pocket, staring down at it. She hadn't gotten a chance to burn down L’manberg itself before the TNT hit, but she supposed this would do.   


Niki holds the flame of the lighter up to the twigs of the branches and watches with sick fascination as the flames curl around the bark, lapping at the wood until it burned away into ash and joined the rest of the smoke in the wind.   


She’s burning down L’mantree with no remorse.  _ Good riddance.  _ Who needed L’manberg anyway?   


_ I did,  _ she realizes.  _ I needed L’manberg. I- _

She stumbles away from L’mantree, lighter falling to the ground, the flame stomped out by her feet as she steps away. Her hands fly to her mouth, and a sob chokes out of her mouth.  _ What have I  _ done?

Niki’s hands fall away and she straightens, taking a deep breath. She looks back up at the tree, the leaves burning and shriveling up into ash. As she watches smoke soar into the sky, she raises a shaky hand in a salute, a few tears rolling down her cheeks as she realizes the implications of what she's done.   


_ Goodbye, L’manberg. _


End file.
